AUSTRALIAN DATES AND TIME

Daylight Savings

Australia has had Daylight Saving Time (DST) in various forms since the early 1900s. While the majority of Australians accept it, Daylight Savings has been rejected repeatedly by others. Western Australians voted in 2009 and for the fourth time rejected it. Arguments for and against it often become heated as people are passionate on both sides. Queensland has been considering splitting the state in half with one part participating in Daylight Savings and the other not. It will be interesting to see if anything happens with it.

ACT • New South Wales • South Australia • Victoria • Tasmania

	Begins 2 am EST	Ends 2 am EST		Begins 2 am EST	Ends 2 am EST
Sunday	2 Oct 2011	1 April 2012	Sunday	6 Oct 2013	6 April 2014
Sunday	7 Oct 2012	7 April 2013	Sunday	5 Oct 2014	5 April 2015

Begins = set your clocks forward 1 hour. Ends = set your clocks back 1 hour.

NOTE: Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia do not participate in Daylight Saving.

Western Australia

Western Australia remains on Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) all year and does not participate in Daylight Savings.

A three-year trial of daylight saving began in Western Australia on Sunday December 3, 2006. This trial period gave WA residents time to see if they like Daylight Savings or not. A referendum was held in 2009 to decide whether it should become permanent. It was rejected by the majority of voters. Previously WA had 3 referendums ... 8 March 1975, 7 April 1984, 4 April 1992 ... and all 3 were defeated.

Synchronised Times

From 2008 the ACT, NSW, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania all started daylight savings on the first Sunday in October and ended on the first Sunday in April. This now results in an extra month of daylight saving for the ACT. More importantly it introduces a common start and finish dates in these states.

Daylight Saving or Daylight Savings?

David from NSW wrote to us asking which is correct Daylight Savings or Daylight Saving (with or without the 's' at the end) ?

The correct spelling in Australia is without the 's'. However, Daylight Saving, Daylight Savings and even Daylight-Saving all mean the same thing.

Some people have written to chastise us that we have let an Americanism into our website.

When someone lets me know they spotted an Americanism on our website, I do try to remove it. An example is the word "synchronised" in the title above. The Yanks spell it "synchronized" while Aussies spell it with an 's' instead of the 'z'. So I quickly corrected it and others when they're found.

So why do we use Daylight Savings with the 's' on our website?
The simple truth is that more people, including Australians, search for it with the 's' than without it. Unless people can find our website in searches, they won't know we are here.